Hanami Picnic

A couple of weekends ago (I know, I've been quite slack updating) I went on a Hanami picnic with friends from EnglishBox (a language school). First we walked around the beautiful gardens of the prefectural art museum, but instead of sitting down under the trees on a traditional blue plastic tarp, we had the picnic at a house nearby. I had a sample of some very nice (and expensive) shochu, which is a distilled spirit that can be made from rice, sweet potatoes, wheat, or sugarcane - whatever happens to be handy I guess! I also tried some unusually smooth sake, some red wine, and of course my favourite Japanese beer - Kirin Ichiban. Thanks to the large amount of food I ate, my stomach didn't complain too much at this unusual combination of drinks!